Author: blackcinemaconnection

Summer of Violence

Release Date: 6/16/23; American Black Film Festival
Genre: Drama
Rating: NR
Running Time: 104 mins.
Director: Nicki Micheaux
Studio(s): Three60 Films
Cast: Kasey Inez (Naomi), Damon Gupton (Thomas), Jahking Guillory (Frank), Madhulika Krishnan (Pamela), Shon Wilson (Eleanor Bradford).

Story: It was the summer of 1993. Denver was hit with a spike in gang violence, which woke up the typically sleepy state of Colorado. That summer forever changed the laws and the state began to charge 14-year-olds as adults, while others passed the Three Strikes Law. But, our hero, Naomi didn’t know much about it. She’d spent four years in college in Boulder and getting to Denver to pursue her poetry was the first step to living her life on her own terms. Cut off from her father’s money, this suburbanite finds herself living in the middle of a gang infested neighborhood. She pushes to get her poetry published and find her way in this community. But she finds that living with violence has a cost, even if you are not the one hurt. Proximity to the epidemic of violence impacts how she sees herself and her ability to find her own voice. In this new community, she and her best friend Pam, young and wide-eyed, with a belief in their invincibility, do everything they can to pay rent, be artists, and follow the love in their hearts. These are simple things so many of us take for granted, but are monumental in communities stricken by violence. Naomi has to find her identity for herself and learn how she fits in her community. Ultimately, she must decide if following her dreams is worth the costs. Sources: official site, summerofviolence.com; abff.com.

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Murder City

Release Date:  6/16/23; American Black Film Festival
Genre:  Thriller
Rating:   NR
Running Time:  85 mins.
Director:  Michael D. Olmos
Studio(s):  HBK F.C., Village Roadshow Pictures
Cast:  Mike Colter (Neil), Antonio Fargas (Graham), Stephanie Sigman (Ash), Medina Senghore (Molly), James Udom (Laz).

Story:  After losing his job on the police force, Neil is forced to work with a ruthless female narcotics trafficker to settle the debts of his estranged, deadbeat father and protect his wife and son.  Murder City is the second movie filmed under Village Roadshow Pictures’ Black Noir Cinema franchise, co-founded by NBA great Kevin Garnett.  Inspired by classics like Shaft,” Super Fly and Cleopatra Jones, Black Noir Cinema, aims to adapt and redefine the Blaxploitation genre and translate its spirit of empowerment to a new generation of Black audiences.  Source:  Variety.com.  Photo Source:  abff.com

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The Flaming Crisis

Release Date:  8/21/1924
Genre:  Drama
Director(s):  William H. Grimes, Leo C. Popkin
Studio(s):  Monarch Productions, Mesco Productions
Running Time:  Unknown
Silent
Black & White

Cast:  Calvin Nicholson (Newspaperman Robert Mason), Dorothy Dunbar (Texas ‘Tex’ Miller), Henry Dixon (Mark Lethier), Talford White (Buck Conley), Kathryn Sherman, Marie Chester,
Arthur Yeargan.

Story:  Robert Mason, a young black newspaperman, exposes corrupt labor leader Mark Lethier. In turn, Mason’s engagement to Vivian Lethier is ended. When Mark Lethier is murdered, Mason is convicted on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to prison. After several years in prison, Mason escapes and makes his way to the southwestern cattle country, where he falls in love with Tex Miller, a beautiful cowgirl. Mason endeavors to rid the territory of an outlaw band led by Buck Conley, a.k.a. the “Night Terror.” Once he is successful, he decides to give himself up to the law, thinking that he will be sent back to prison. However, after discovering that the real murderer has confessed, he returns to Tex and the country he has come to love.

Details:  Information in the George P. Johnson Collection at the UCLA Special Collections Library notes that producer Lawrence Goldman was a white former theater owner in Kansas City and head of the Motion Picture Exhibitors of Missouri. On May 12, 1924, Film Daily reported that Goldman and crew had just wrapped shooting and returned to Kansas City from location. A May 24, 1924 Billboard item stated that filming had been delayed for ten weeks while lead actor Calvin Nicholson recovered from injuries sustained during the filming of a cattle rush scene. A review in the April 5, 1924 Pittsburgh Courier named that scene as one of three “big thrills” of the movie, in addition to “the death-defying jump of the hero from a high bridge to a fast train far below,” and the battle between the outlaws and the sheriff’s posse.

This film is considered lost.  Source(s):  AFI Catalog (catalog.afi.com); Photo Source:  DAARAC.org.

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My Sweet Charlie

Release Date:  1/20/1970 (original TV airing); NBC
Genre:  Drama
Rating:  G
Running Time:  97 mins.
Director:  Lamont Johnson
Studio(s):  Bob Banner Associates, Universal Television, National Broadcasting Company (NBC), Universal Pictures.
Cast:  Al Freeman, Jr. (Charlie Roberts), Patty Duke (Marlene Chambers), Ford Rainey (Treadwell), William Hardy (Mr. Larrabee), Chris Wilson (Mrs. Larrabee), Noble Willingham (Grady), Dave Ward (Sheriff).

Story:  Charles Roberts, a black activist lawyer from the North who traveled to rural Texas to participate in a Civil Rights protest, believes he killed a white man albeit in self-defense. Fearing for his life, he flees to a closed summer house on the Gulf Coast.  There he finds Marlene Chambers, a southern, white uneducated, prejudiced, unwed pregnant teenager who has taken refuge in the house after being shunned by her father and boyfriend for her pregnancy and cast out of her home. Forced by circumstance to stay there together, the two express mutual hostilities, confront prejudices (racial, regional, class and sexual), and eventually develop appreciation, and respect for one another.  When Marlene goes into labor Charlie hurries to the nearby town for supplies and help. He tries to act like a deferential southern Negro toward Treadwell, the prejudiced owner of a small country store, but is offended and allows his northern accent to come out. Treadwell starts a fight, Charlie runs away but Treadwell catches up with him, pulls a gun, and kills him.

Details:  This made-for-TV drama movie was based on the novel and play of the same name by David Westheimer.  The play opened at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre with Bonnie Bedelia (Die Hard, Die Hard 2) and Louis Gossett, Jr. (Roots, An Officer and a Gentlemen) in the leading roles.  Sources:  every70smovieblogspot.com, AFI catalog, tcm.com, hornsectionblogspot.com.  Photo Sources:  modcinema.com, hornsectionblogspot.com, daaracarchive.org.

Trailer:

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Surrounded

Release Date:  6/20/23; VOD

Genre:  Western

Rating:   R

Running Time:  100 mins.

Director:  Anthony Mandler

Studio(s):  3.16 Productions, BRON Studios, BlackHand, Creative Wealth Media Finance, Mandalay Pictures

Cast:  Letitia Wright (Moses Washington), Jamie Bell (Tommy Walsh), Michael K. Williams (The Stranger), Jeffrey Donovan (Wheeler), Brett Gelman (Mr. Fields).

Story:   Five years after the Civil War, freedwoman and former Buffalo Soldier Moses “Mo” Washington travels west disguised as a man to lay claim to a gold mine.  After her stagecoach is ambushed by a group of murderous thieves, Mo is forced to hold dangerous outlaw, Tommy Walsh, captive while the remaining surviving passengers seek out help before the bandit’s gang tries to free him.  Sources:  Wikipedia, IMDB.

Trailer:

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Cinnamon

Release Date:  6/11/23 – Tribeca Film Festival; 6/17/23 – American Black Film Festival;
6/23/23 – Tubi
Genre:  Thriller
Rating:   NR
Running Time:  91 mins.
Director:  Bryian Keith Montgomery, Jr.
Studio(s):  Village Roadshow Pictures, Tubi TV

Cast: Pam Grier (Mama), Hailey Kilgore (Jodi Jackson), David Iacono (Eddie), Jeremie Harris (James Walker), Damon Wayans (Wally).

Story:  Cinnamon centers on Jodi, a young woman who is frustrated and stuck in a dead-end job with her dreams slipping away.  Then she meets Eddie, a hustler who quickly becomes her fiercely devoted boyfriend.  The couple, desperate to start a new life and jumpstart Jodi’s singing career, make the fateful decision to commit a crime together but their plan quickly goes sideways.  Jodi and Eddie have unknowingly unleashed a spiraling chain of events that quickly makes them the target of a ruthless family run crime organization.  Mama, the undisputed head of the organization and her son James will stop at nothing to find out what went wrong.  As James begins to uncover the truth, no one is safe and secrets are revealed leading to a deadly showdown where Jodi and Eddie must answer for their crime.  The noir thriller marks the first film released under Village Roadshow and Tubi’s Black Noir Cinema banner.  Sources:  Variety.com; Deadline.com.

Trailer:

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